In Honor of the Immaculate Conception – “ A From a sermon by Saint Anselm, Bishop”

Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night—everything that is subject to the power or use of man—rejoice that through you they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace. All creatures were dead, as it were, useless for men or for the praise of God, who made them. The world, contrary to its true destiny, was corrupted and tainted by the acts of men who served idols. Now all creation has been restored to life and rejoices that it is controlled and given splendor by men who believe in God.

The universe rejoices with new and indefinable loveliness. Not only does it feel the unseen presence of God himself, its Creator, it sees him openly, working and making it holy. These great blessings spring from the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb.

Through the fullness of the grace that was given you, dead things rejoice in their freedom, and those in heaven are glad to be made new. Through the Son who was the glorious fruit of your virgin womb, just souls who died before his life-giving death rejoice as they are freed from captivity, and the angels are glad at the restoration of their shattered domain.

Lady, full and overflowing with grace, all creation receives new life from your abundance. Virgin, blessed above all creatures, through your blessing all creation is blessed, not only creation from its Creator, but the Creator himself has been blessed by creation.

To Mary God gave his only-begotten Son, whom he loved as himself. Through Mary God made himself a Son, not different but the same, by nature Son of God and Son of Mary. The whole universe was created by God, and God was born of Mary. God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God. The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary.

God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the mother of the re-created world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary the mother through whom all things were given new life. For God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Savior of the world. Without God’s Son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s Son, nothing could be redeemed.

Truly the Lord is with you, to whom the Lord granted that all nature should owe as much to you as to himself.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son, grant, we pray, that, as you preserved her from every stain by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw, so, through her intercession, we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. — Amen.

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St. Maximilian Kolbe and the Immaculate Conception And Its Relationship To The Fight Against Freemasonry Within Every Sector | On Catholic Culture

Saint Maximillian Kolbe said this about the Masonic demonstrations against the Church and Masonry’s evil designs

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The evil of Freemasonry

Another reason that motivated Kolbe to found the MI, as reflected in his original charter quoted earlier, and alluded to in the testimony of Fr. Arzilli, quoted above, is the “error of Masonry.” By 1917 Italian Masonry was boldly rearing its ugly head in opposition to the Church. Writing in 1935 about the founding of the MI back in 1917, St. Maximilian said:

[T]he Freemasons in Rome began to demonstrate openly and belligerently against the Church. They placed the black standard of the “Giordano Brunisti” under the window of the Vatican. [Giordano Bruno was a Dominican turned Calvinist turned pantheist who was burned as a heretic on Feb. 17, 1600. This Masonic demonstration most likely occurred on Feb. 17 to commemorate his death]. On this standard the archangel St. Michael was depicted lying under the feet of the triumphant Lucifer. At the same time, countless pamphlets were distributed to the people in which the Holy Father was attacked shamefully. “Right then I conceived the idea of organizing an active society to counteract Freemasonry and other slaves of Lucifer . . .23

In 1939, writing in the Latin magazine for priests which he began publishing a year earlier, Miles Immaculatae, Kolbe said this about the Masonic demonstrations against the Church and Masonry’s evil designs:

[During the marches around the Vatican on Brunisti’s anniversary], some enraged hands dared to write such slogans as, ‘Satan will rule on Vatican Hill, and the Pope will serve as his lackey,’ and other such insults. Now these unreasoning acts of hatred toward the Church of Christ and his temporal Vicar were not the inept rantings of a few individual psychopaths, but the manner, way and plan of action deduced from the Masonic rule: Destroy all teaching about God, especially the Catholic teaching.

Centers of this secret society have been established in every region. Nevertheless in various ways they more or less openly promote the same thing. In their plan they use many and various kinds of societies, which under their leadership promote neglect of Divine things and the breakdown of morality. This is because the Freemasons follow this principle above all: “Catholicism can be overcome not by logical arguments but by corrupted morals.” And so they overwhelm the souls of men with the kind of literature and arts that will most easily destroy a sense of chaste morals, and foster sordid lifestyles in all phases of human life . . . To bring help to so many unhappy persons, to stabilize innocent hearts so that all can more easily go to the Immaculate Virgin through whom so many graces come down to us, the Militia Immaculatae was established in Rome in 1917.24

We can imagine what this Polish Knight of Our Lady would say today regarding the widespread promotion of immorality in television, movies, music and the arts; and we can ponder to what extent Freemasonry — which is truly an arm of Satan — has contributed and continues to contribute to the current state of affairs.

Gen. 3:15: The humble Woman who crushes Satan’s proud head

St. Maximilian, the gentle Friar who lived the white crown of purity and received the red crown of martyrdom, clearly saw Gen. 3:15 as having both salvific and eschatological dimensions. This was one of his main reasons for founding the MI as a young seminarian in Rome in 1917. In God’s almighty providence, it is no mere coincidence that Kolbe founded the MI in the same year that Our Lady appeared to the three little children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, at Fatima, Portugal and revealed to them God’s plan for world peace. “She will crush your head” should be read alongside Mary’s own words at Fatima: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph”; for the ultimate triumph of Mary’s Immaculate Heart involves the victory of the Immaculata — the All-Pure and Spotless Virgin whom the Evil One could never touch — over Satan and his minions.

In our Catholic Tradition, beginning with SS. Justin Martyr (+ 165), Irenaeus (+ 200), Epiphanius (+ 403) and Jerome (+ 420), Mary has been contrasted with Eve by phrases such as: “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience”; and “Death through Eve, life through Mary,”25 Truly, Mary is the “New Eve.”26 However, in light of the revelation in Gen. 3:15, can we not also say that in addition to viewing Eve in opposition to Mary, as her anti-type, that in God’s salvific plan the Prince of Darkness should also be seen in opposition to Mary, even as another anti-type of Our Lady?27 Consider: Satan and Mary are both creatures. Both were endowed at their creation with abundant gifts: Lucifer was the most beautiful and intelligent of all the angels before his fall; Mary from the first moment of her Conception was Immaculate and Full of Grace. Satan was “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44); Mary is the “Mother of All the Living.”28 Satan, the Tempter, deprived the human race of grace; Mary is the Mother in the Order of Grace. Satan is the “Father of Lies” (John 8:44); Mary is the “Destroyer of All Heresies.”29 In the end, Satan’s proud rebellion, “Non serviam” (“I will not serve”),30 will be overcome by Mary’s humble obedience: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).31

The Church teaches that all the angels were created naturally good, and that prior to being admitted into the presence of God they were given a test of obedience.32 They failed that test by “radically and irrevocably” rejecting God and his reign,33 and as a result they are separated from God eternally.34 A tradition among Saints and theologians holds that in this test of obedience, the Incarnation was revealed to the angels, and that Satan along with a number of other angels rebelled, refusing to submit to the notion of having to worship him who would be both God and man, and as a result “fell like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Because his will is forever fixed in his rebellion,35 he still refuses to believe that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Word made flesh and therefore must be worshipped and adored.

The opening scene in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ takes place in the Garden of Gethsemane. Satan tries to tempt Christ by ridiculing the notion that he can redeem all men by his death. Then, under his breath, the Evil One contemptuously murmurs the following words: “Who is your father? . . . Who are you?” These words are significant, for they implicitly reveal the root of Satan’s rebellion: a proud refusal to believe that Jesus is the Incarnate Word. We see analogous statements, revealing the same mentality, in the Gospels, when Satan tries to tempt Jesus: “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread . . . If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down [from the parapet of the Temple]” (Mt. 4:3, 6). Then Satan, after taking Jesus up atop a high mountain, shows Him “all the kingdoms in the world in their magnificence,” and says: “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me” (Matt. 4:8-9). The fact that Satan demands that Jesus worship him clearly reveals his refusal to believe that Jesus is both God and man.

Why did Satan refuse to submit to the revelation of the Eternal Word taking flesh? Perhaps it was because he, the most beautiful and intelligent of all the angels,36 thought it inconceivable that God should become man and take a nature even lower than his own. Satan would not serve because Satan refused to believe. We might say that the “Prince of this World” was the first rationalist: in pride, he refused to submit in mind and will to what his great (though finite) angelic intellect could not fully fathom: the deep mystery of the Incarnation; a union of two natures in one Divine Person. While Satan and the fallen angels who joined him believe in God — St. James tells us that “Even the demons believe . . . and tremble” (Jas. 2:19) — they refuse to believe that Jesus Christ is the Incarnate Word.

By contrast, Mary is the woman of faith. Her humble “Fiat” is an expression of her great faith, to which Elizabeth gives witness: “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Luke 1:45). What was that message which Mary believed? It was this: that she would “conceive in [her] womb and bear a son” who “will be called the Son of the Most High” and “will be called holy, the Son of God” (Luke 1:31-32, 35). Mary’s faith in the great mystery of the Incarnation, and in God’s ability to effect this incomprehensible event within her, was in part due to her great humility. As Mary herself says in the Magnificat, the Lord “hath regarded the humility of his handmaid” (Luke 1:47).37 In God’s salvific plan Mary, in her humility and her obedience in faith, is set in direct opposition to Satan’s proud refusal to believe what God had revealed about His Son becoming man, and of his ongoing rebellion before God. In this sense the Evil Serpent is truly the anti-type of the spotless Virgin.

As a consequence of her great faith and her humble obedience to God’s will, Mary became the Mother of God. And because of her perseverance in faith unto Calvary, she became the Mother of all the redeemed in the Order of Grace and now shares in her Son’s victory on the Cross;38 a victory which will culminate in the final defeat of the Prince of Darkness: “She will crush thy head” (Gen. 3:15).

Scripture reveals that “crushing the heads” of all evildoers is part of the definitive victory of Christ over his enemies. Psalm 74 [73] speaks of God, the “king from of old”: “You smashed the heads of the dragons on the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan” (Ps. 74 [73]: 12-14). Psalm 110 [109] says that the Christ, both King in the line of David and High Priest in the order of Melchizedek, “crushes kings on the day of wrath”; He who is “robed in splendor, judges nations” and “crushes heads across the wide earth” (Ps. 110 [109]: 5-6).39 St. Paul promises that all who remain faithful and obedient to God will share in this activity; he says that if we are “wise to what is good and simple to what is evil, then the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet” (Rom. 16:19-20).40 However, Mary, who is the Mother of Christ, and both Mother and “Eschatological Icon” of the Church,41 will be given a privileged place among Christ’s faithful in this glorious triumph of Christ over the Father of Lies and all who follow him. This is the meaning of the “woman” in Gen. 3:15, of which the valiant woman, Jael, is a type, who crushed the head of the evil general Sisera, when he attacked God’s Chosen People. In Deborah’s canticle she praises Jael, saying “Blessed among women be Jael”; and then continues: “With her left hand she reached for the peg, with her right, for the workman’s mallet. She hammered Sisera, crushed his head; she smashed, stove in his temple. At her feet he sank down, fell, lay still; down at her feet he sank and fell” (Judges 5:24, 26-27).42

Bl. Pius IX, in his Apostolic Constitution defining the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Ineffabilis Deus, gives us an authoritative interpretation of Gen. 3:15 when, after quoting this verse, he says: “the most holy Virgin, united with [her divine Son] by a most intimate and indissoluble bond, was, with him and through him, eternally at enmity with the evil serpent, and most completely triumphed over him, and thus crushed his head with her immaculate foot.” Pope John Paul II echoes and expands on these words, saying:

the Immaculate Conception does not mean only an exaltation of Mary, as if she had been transported outside of all those who have received the inheritance of the sin of our first parents.

On the contrary, it means her insertion into the very center of the spiritual combat, of this “enmity” that in the course of human history places the “Prince of Darkness” and the “Father of Lies” in opposition to the Woman and her seed.

Through the words of the Book of Genesis, we see Mary Immaculate in all the realism of her election. We see her at the culminating moment of this “enmity”: at the foot of the Cross of Christ on Calvary. There “she will crush your head and you will strike her heel.”43

In his own devotion to Mary and in founding the MI, St. Maximilian clearly saw Mary as actively engaged in the ongoing spiritual combat that is waged “not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of the is darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Eph. 6:12).44 The Martyr of Auschwitz also saw that in the end, this lowly Handmaid of the Lord, she who “cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array” (Song 6:9),45 will be victorious and, through the power and grace of Christ, render a most humiliating defeat upon the Evil Serpent: she will crush his proud head, which will usher in the definitive Reign of Christ as our King, and Mary as our Queen, along with the triumph of her Immaculate Heart.